It’s all Raw Material

“Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is [raw] material.”

― Philip Roth [adjusted]

A few months ago, I had the groundbreaking realization that the only path to calling myself a writer was to be read.

Go figure.

I created Raw Material as a space to share my unpolished thoughts, experiences and feelings (so.many.feelings) and as practice to putting all of that out into the world. It’s very scary. Thank you for reading.

The Monarc Chronicles

Aside from wanting to write for myself, I’ve been working on a community building project centered around journaling through life transitions.

I spent my late teens and early twenties in and out of hospitals, and on most days, the only way I could express myself was through journaling. I have dozens of journals filled with my day-to-day fears, questions, hopes and post-recovery dreams. I don’t go through them very often, but I cherish them because they meant everything to me at the time.

Journaling has become the only medicine I’d rather not taper off. It’s how I find my voice when I feel the most ungrounded. And I feel especially ungrounded when life changes.

As I spoke with friends and family, I realized not only do we all experience life transitions at different points (think breakups, career changes, new parenthood, moving, retirement, grief…), but transitions are consistently HARD—and we don’t talk about them very often.

The thought that some of us might experience the challenges of change alone made me sad.

There’s a subsection in Raw Material called The Monarc Chronicles that I’d love for you to join (although if I know you, I may have already subscribed you to it against your will). It’s a series dedicated to journaling prompts for specific life transitions. This is where you’ll find structured guidance for using journaling as a tool through change.

I would really love for The Monarc Chronicles to become interactive. Send me your notes, your writings, your feedback. Monarc is for you.

About Me

I'm Clara, a New York City kid with a whole lotta French in me. Brooklyn is my home now, and I really like it here.

I’m a lawyer in the arts and a yoga teacher in training. Oh! And a writer.

Thank you for hanging. Subscribe if this sounds familiar and if you like things to get a little weird. Write to me whenever you’d like.

With love,
Clara C.